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CFIA lays charges against sheep farmer

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has laid criminal charges against a Hastings-area sheep farmer.

Charged are Montana Jones, 54, and three other people, in connection with the removal in April of 31 sheep from Jones' farm.

The farm was under federal quarantine at the time.

The CFIA said this week it has also laid criminal charges against Michael Schmidt, 58, Suzanne Atkinson, 52 and Robert Pinnell, 46. The charges against Jones, Schmidt, Atkinson and Pinnell include allegedly obstructing a CFIA inspector, transporting animals under quarantine and conspiracy to defraud the public of a service over $5,000.

The charges were laid Dec, 4 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Cobourg.

The CFIA said the four accused were charged following an investigation into the removal of the rare-breed Shropshire Sheep from Jones' farm April 2.

The farm was under quarantine because it was suspected of being contaminated with scrapie, a fatal, transmissible neurological disease of sheep and goats.

Jones sold a sheep born in 2006 to an Alberta farm where the CFIA said it tested positive for scrapie in 2009.

The agency quarantined her farm, and last March issued an order to destroy 41 of her rare pregnant sheep based on their genotype, which the CFIA considers to be at risk for scrapie.

CFIA officers arriving at Jones' Wholearth Farm Studio April 2 to remove the sheep were told the animals had been taken from the barn sometime overnight.

A note was found in the empty barn signed by a group calling itself the Farmers' Peace Corps. It read: “We have taken the animals into protective custody until an alternative to killing has been found, or conclusive independent proof or clear evidence of disease has been proven. This has been done without the knowledge or participation of the owner.”

The missing sheep were later found on a Grey County farm and destroyed, along with the remaining scrapie-susceptible sheep at Jones' farm.

The CFIA said the sheep were destroyed as part efforts by Canada's Scrapie Eradication Program to to control the spread of scrapie.

The CFIA said it administers the program “with the full support of the Canadian sheep industry,” with the goal of promoting sheep health and protecting a valuable industry.
“It is alleged that by unlawfully removing and concealing the sheep, the program was threatened and the health and safety of other sheep and the industry were jeopardized,” said the CFIA in a statement.

But Canadian Constitution Foundation litigation director Karen Selick, who has represented Jones throughout her fight, said the CFIA release “contains allegations that are unsubstantiated, self-serving, and inflammatory...intended to stir up animosity towards the accused, and to bolster the CFIA’s own sense of self-importance.”

Selick also called the CFIA's contention that the unlawful removal of Jones’ sheep jeopardized the health and safety of other sheep “nonsense,” arguing that when the 31 sheep were found, killed and tested, every one tested negative for scrapie. “Furthermore, there is no evidence that the missing sheep ever came into contact with any other sheep, so how could anyone else’s animals have been jeopardized?”

Selick is also contesting the CFIA's contention that it has the full support of the sheep industry.

She said that since taking on Jones' case she has heard from sheep and goat farmers from across Canada who are critical of the CFIA program and who “highly resent being lumped in as supportive.”

Selick said the Canadian Constitution Foundation became involved with Jones’ case because of out of concern that the Health of Animals Act violates her constitutional rights.

“We still believe that to be the case, and we expect that constitutional arguments will be raised in the defences of both Montana and Michael Schmidt now that they have been charged,” she said.